1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle information display apparatus for displaying a received vehicle information on a map displayed in a display region, a method of displaying a vehicle information, and a medium in which a program for controlling a display for the vehicle information display apparatus is recorded.
2. Discussion of Background
There have been invented vehicle information systems to obtain smooth cruising of vehicles. Now, vehicle informations such as a traffic stagnation, a traffic accident or a traveling time have been presented to vehicles through various kinds of media. In such a case, there have been proposed various ways of presenting vehicle information data by means of, for example, a character information presented as JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) KANJI (Chinese character) and KANA (Japanese character) code, a figure information presented by means of image data and a link information wherein link numbers are given to respective roads and various kinds of information are presented by using the link numbers.
FIG. 11 shows a display region in which a character information is displayed; FIG. 12 shows a display region in which a figure information is displayed, and FIG. 13 shows a display region indicating a map to which roads in correspondence with a link information are added.
Detailed explanation will be made as to a conventional method of displaying various kinds of information with use of these drawings.
The character information comprises a heading section indicating a kind of information and a time at which the information is presented and an actual information section for displaying detailed information, which are supplied by means of the JIS KANJI and KANA code. When a character information is received, an image as shown in FIG. 11 is presented. In an upper portion of the display region, there are shown the name of a medium received (in this case, a radio beacon provides “broad area character information”) and an information receiving time (in this case, “12:56”).
The figure information comprises a background picture data which are provided as a simplified map including road names, road numbers and place names, the simplified map being previously prepared and a superimposing picture data which are so adapted as to be superimposed correctly on the background picture data after the received vehicle information has been processed. Since the background picture data and the superimposing picture data are image data, the display means on the vehicle displays the data without any change. When a figure information is received, an image as shown in FIG. 12 is displayed wherein the name of a medium received (in this case, an FM multiplex broadcast informs “accident-regulation”) and an information receiving time (in this case, “15:30”) are indicated.
A link information is composed of a link code indicating link numbers which are previously given to respective roads and an information code which includes various kinds of vehicle information corresponding to the link (such as a traffic stagnation information, a travel time, a traffic regulation, a parking information and so on) and additional informations related thereto. For example, there are 4 kinds of the stagnation information, i.e., “stagnation”, “crowd”, “no stagnation” and “unclear”, and there are 5 kinds of the parking information, i.e., “occupied”, “crowd”, “empty”, “closed”and “unclear”.
Further, as shown in FIG. 13, a display can be shown by superimposing various kinds of vehicle information on an image of the ordinary map.
Thus, with respect to the character information, the driver or a passenger in the driver's own vehicle can optionally determine the way of displaying characters (for example, the size, the color and the type of characters, an arrangement of characters and so on). Further, since the map information itself is previously set in the driver's own vehicle, the driver or the passenger can determine the way of displaying the map (for example, a reduced scale and a magnification of the map), and a combination of the character information and the figure information can be displayed as a link information as shown in FIG. 14.
However, the conventional vehicle information display apparatus had a problem as follows. Since the figure information was supplied as image data by a predetermined number of dots, it was impossible to change the figure information at the driver's vehicle side, and it was impossible to combine the figure information with another information.
Further, although it was possible to recognize traffic stagnations at several places by means of the figure information, the present position of the driver's vehicle could not be displayed by the figure information so that the driver could not detect the location where the driver's vehicle cruises. As a result, the positional relation between a vehicle information such as a traffic stagnation and the driver's own vehicle could not be recognized. Further, even in a combination of the character information with the map, the driver had to detect the present position of the owner vehicle in view of the present position indicating mark on the displayed map. Accordingly, he could not obtain an effective information such as the name of a place which can easily be related to the character information. Thus, the driver could not detect the positional relation between the character information and the present position.